Dulal
Some years ago, ex-agricultural labourer, ex-rickshaw puller, ex-porter and ex-shop owner Dulal gave up working at the village market and started his own vegetables trade: ever since, twice a week, he buys supplies at his or nearby villages’ haat, loads them on a truck, travels 110km across the Padma River over night, to transform himself from witty villager to canny businessman in one of Dhaka’s semi-official street markets, Mirpur. He is very fond of this market as its proximity to the highway allows him to get there and leave very quickly: reaching his village at early afternoon after a 4-hours bus ride, he says “you see: how far is my village from Dhaka? If now, we had lunch and left again, we’d be back before evening”.